Sep. 17--Charles Williams summed it up.

An hour and a half in a line that stretched for blocks left Williams a bit wobbly Tuesday afternoon. His legs aren't what they once were.

The line was one of several holding what police estimated to be 10,000 Houstonians funneling into the parking lot of Ripley House, a community center in the city's East End -- the location of one of the PODs (points of distribution) where ice, bottled water and military meals ready to eat provided by FEMA were being handed out.

I stopped by Ripley House because I heard reports that long waits at some PODs were causing unrest.

"I can't complain," Williams said. "Think of the people in Galveston."

He's absolutely right. Galveston and some other smaller cities in the region were hit with the full force of a hurricane.

Houston got what you might call an electrical storm.

Large portions of Galveston were wiped out by flooding and winds. The Bolivar Peninsula and other areas were devastated. Thousands either lost their homes or suffered severe damage.

In Houston, most of us lost our electricity, a result that had been all but guaranteed among much scarier predictions as Ike bore down on us.

Losing electricity is no minor matter. We have become wired to it. But Galveston and environs lost much more.

It's enough to make you wonder. You heard some of those preachers who blamed Katrina on the wicked ways of New Orleans?

What would they say about the fact that both Rita and Ike looked like they would deck Houston but walloped smaller cities instead?

They wouldn't say anything. Those who think God nudges natural disasters toward sinners and away from saints can't imagine him punishing Beaumont, as Rita did, while taking it relatively easy on Houston.

Or, within Houston, why would the family-friendly Woodlands suffer more than the gay-friendly Montrose?

Theological explanations aren't necessary. Storm surges hit those who live near the water.

The wind, meanwhile, blows on the wicked and the good.

It leaves, in this case, a small, serendipitous minority with electricity and their neighbors with electricity envy. But in neighborhoods all over Houston, that electricity envy gives way to gratitude as empowered neighbors invite powerless neighbors over for air-conditioning, meals, and even laundry services.

The wind knocks out more lines in The Woodlands than in the Montrose because there are more tall trees in The Woodlands for the wind to deposit on top of power lines.

And it takes out scores of windows in the skyscraping J.P.